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Ragnarok Tactics

Been a while since we've had one of these so thought I'd start one up for Ragnarok Tactics as I play through it. Anyone else who is playing along is welcome to add their thoughts and experiences and I'm happy to answer any questions people might have. I'll try and get an update at least every two-three days, although I can't guarantee how long each update will be, although obviously if people do have any questions that'll help :)

I haven't yet started to play through it (downloaded this morning), but I will be starting this evening. So until I have something to make an actual post on the game here's some earlier RPGamer articles -E3 ImpressionRttS ImpressionPreview

Comments

I am curious about this game, but have been getting burned out on weird tactical games lately (did not enjoy Gungnir, and two other games which are apparently so bad, I have blocked out their names from my memory).

Is the tactical reletively straightforward or are you fighting against a stupidly obtuse game with a bunch of senseless rules?

I'm curious about how this game is going to be as well. I keep swinging and missing with Tactics games these days and have been wondering if I'm either just not good at them anymore/don't like them anymore or if there just aren't any good ones.

Managed to get some initial impressions of the game. It is very much on the straightforward side of tactical RPGs (I want to place it as a bit more straightforward than Tactics Ogre at the moment). It isn't quite as snappy and responsive as I'd like so far, you can't really tap a button to speed up the animation for example. Skills are a bit uninteresting so far, but that appears to be more likely due to being low level than anything else. Characters have two levels - a base level and a job level, both get experience when you attack or use a skill, although a lot more for a killing blow (similar to Tactics Ogre). Job levels affect what skills you have and give an attribute bonus, while base level is the more solid attribute growth (changing jobs knocks job level back to 1 but keeps base level). There also does not appear to be any revival items; when a character goes to 0 HP they disappear completely off the map, but there is no permadeath.

Roughly doubled my progress from last time and I have a few corrections/clarifications from earlier. Firstly, after actually going through the game's help pages, I realised the A.I.Z. system that lets you go back to an earlier point and try another route doesn't unlock until the second playthrough. I don't have any real issue with this but just an FYI. Secondly, that comment about it being act 1 of 5 appears to be incorrect, I now think the ?, ?, ?, ?, ? actually refers to which of the endings you've unlocked on that save file. Finally, while armor still doesn't have an affect on appearance, the hero and non-story characters do get a hat equipment slot that does affect appearance.

The story still isn't mind-blowing, but there's been a few well-done events and it is doing more than enough to keep my interest in what's happening. One thing the story is doing that I quite like is the way, or not, of informing you what happened in those other battles that you chose not to take part in as you were busy elsewhere. It basically gives you a brief "FYI, this happened", which makes sense as that is the level of detail you'd expect your character to be told (although it does still give scenes setting up what your choice of events for the next battle will be, which maybe counteracts that a bit). It's piquing my curiosity and giving me a desire to do another playthrough after I finish this one to find out the details. I'm going through the Toren Militia route, but I do want to go through Cynthia's (Branshaldo Empire) route afterwards. Obviously at this stage I don't know if/how I'm affecting the story through my route choice, will only be able to learn that on a second playthrough.

If you want to get through loads of battles quickly that's not likely to happen, but it is a decent time-killer. I'm getting a bit more into it now that I know what to expect and tempered my expectations a bit. Hoping to be able to get in more time after tomorrow so I can speed up the progress a bit. I'll try and go into AI and classes a bit more next time.

So here's the question that decides if I buy it or not -- how's the archery? Or is there no archer unit or protagonist?

I haven't run into any story-character that is an archer unit (Sniper), but you can make your hero or any of your mercenaries one. Snipers get an attack range in a plus-shape (i.e. they have to be in line), instead of the less-reaching diamond shape that mages get. They are, however, one of the more powerful and important classes (along with Champions) to have - especially with the way the enemy AI works - and I'm using two of each in my standard party (every battle so far has allowed up to eight party members, which includes any story characters).

Well, I've completed the Toren route, was a little bit quicker than I'd envisioned. I will say the route's ending was a bit of an anti-climax, more could've been done to make the ending a lot more interesting. Yes, it's another area where it encourages you to play another route and witness more of the story, but there's not really that sense of achievement in completing a route that other multiple route games have.

As I mentioned before, with the way AI works, it does mean that ranged fighters (Snipers) and quick melee fighters have a huge edge over everyone else, although I found to useful to have at least one healing mage and two of the melee classes with a higher defence (Lord Knight and Paladin). The problem with the AI is it seems very simplistic and easy to draw out. Enemies won't move until you either come within range of one of their attacks or hit them (although very occasionally one or two will get bored and suicidally charge). This means that battles are mostly about drawing out one or two enemies at a time and just destroying them.

What I'm going to do today is play around with a NG+ for a bit and see how that works and what effect doing another route seems to have before writing the review (which should appear Tuesday, possibly Wednesday if I'm busy with other things). If there are any more specific questions though I'll be happy to answer them.